“A bright future for our high streets” – Labour launches new Commission to rebuild Britain’s high streets and revitalise town centres

Labour’s Shadow Chancellor Anneliese Dodds will today (Monday 19 April) launch an independent Commission on Rebuilding Our High Streets, bringing together experts from businesses in retail, leisure and hospitality, as well as representatives of the trade union, local government cooperative and social enterprise sectors.

Promising “a bright future for our high streets”, Dodds will launch the commission on a visit to Dewsbury town centre. The announcement comes as new figures reveal that over the last decade high streets across the UK have lost:

• 9,775 shops
• 5,785 pubs
• 7,400 bank branches
• 1,195 libraries

The Covid crisis has only made things worse. Last year alone, nearly 180,000 retail jobs were lost and up to 200,000 more are at risk this year.

The Commission will meet regularly over the course of the next six months to offer independent advice to the Party on issues such as:

• How the high streets of the 2020s and beyond can be supported to thrive, as great places where people can shop, socialise, meet, work and live.

• Bringing empty commercial properties back into use for existing and new businesses.
• Levelling the playing field between bricks and mortar businesses and online firms.
• Promoting entrepreneurship and innovation in our high streets, reflecting the needs of local communities.

It will include Michael Meadows (British Land), Peter Kinsella (Lunya), Peter Holbrook (Social Enterprise UK) Paddy Lillis (USDAW), Arvinda Gohil (Central YMCA), Councillor Tricia Gilby (Chesterfield Borough Council) and Anna Birley (Cooperative Party).

The UK’s high streets have been hit by unprecedented challenges throughout the pandemic and face more threats in the coming year. These include government changes to planning rules in August, which will allow shops to be converted into low quality flats over the heads of local communities, and the staged return of business rates, with firms liable to pay full rates again in April next year.

The Government has repeatedly promised to reform Britain’s broken business rates system, but yet again at the Budget pushed back the date when reforms would be announced.

Anneliese Dodds MP, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, said:

“I’m delighted to be announcing the Rebuilding Our High Streets commission today and I want to thank everyone involved for agreeing to take part.

“Our high streets have been through a gruelling year, and Conservative changes to planning laws and their failure to reform the broken business rates system mean there are more challenges ahead.

“Labour is determined to deliver a brighter future for our high streets as part of our mission to make Britain the best place to grow up and grow old in.

“That doesn’t mean harking back to a vision of the past, but finding ways to make our town centres places we can be proud of and where communities can come together. This Commission will offer independent advice to Labour on how we achieve that.”

Ends

Notes to editors

• The full membership of the independent ‘Rebuilding Our High Streets’ commission is:

o Michael Meadows (British Land)

o Peter Kinsella (Lunya)

o Peter Holbrook (Social Enterprise UK)

o Arvinda Gohil (Central YMCA)

o Paddy Lillis (USDAW)

o Councillor Tricia Gilby (Chesterfield Borough Council)

o Anna Birley (Cooperative Party)

• Peter Kinsella from Lunya said:

“I’m really pleased to have been invited to join the commission. At Lunya, we have 10 years of a multi-site restaurant, deli and online business and have experienced the rollercoaster of high street life through the financial crisis over 10 years ago and the pandemic most recently, opening three restaurants and closing one. We have plenty of experience and ideas and hope to be able to play a constructive part in generating ideas for the continued success of the UK High Street in whatever guise that may be.”

• Arvinda Gohil from Central YMCA said:

“The way we engage, shop, participate in our high streets has been slowly and surely changing. It is time to reset what this means for communities and business alike and is an opportunity to reimagine these spaces for the benefit of all of the community.”

• The Commission will meet regularly over the next six months with the Shadow Chancellor Anneliese Dodds, Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Steve Reed and Shadow Busines Minister Lucy Powell. It will offer independent advice to the Labour Party on a range of policy issues affecting high streets, including ways of bringing empty properties back into use, levelling the playing field between bricks and mortar firms and their online rivals, and considering the role that government can play in enabling the development of the high streets of the 2020s and beyond.

• As part of its campaign ahead of the elections on May 6^th, Labour has pledged a “bright future for our high streets”, including:

1. Stopping the Conservatives selling off Britain’s high streets for low-quality housing by scrapping new planning rules.
2. Empowering councils to fill empty shops with new businesses to breathe life back into our town centres.
3. Challenging the government to level the tax playing field for high street businesses and online firms.
4. Establishing a High Streets Fightback Fund to help businesses hit hard by the pandemic to get back on their feet.
5. Protecting family finances by reversing Rishi Sunak’s economically illiterate hammer blows to people’s pockets.

• The Government has introduced legislation to allow commercial premises on high streets to be converted into residential properties under Permitted Development rules, rather than requiring full planning permission. This means that local communities will not have a say in the decision. The proposals have been described as “disgraceful” by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and “a serious error” by the Royal Town Planning Institute. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-freedoms-to-support-high-streets-and-fast-track-delivery-of-schools-and-hospitals-across-england-introduced-today, https://www.building.co.uk/news/professions-unite-to-condemn-disgraceful-expansion-of-pd-rights/5107124.article

• Retail, hospitality and leisure properties in England have received 100% business rates relief from 1 April 2020 onwards. At the Budget 2021, this 100% relief was extended until 30 June, replaced by a 66% relief until 31 March 2022, at which point full rates will become payable again. The Government has postponed its fundamental review of business rates until the autumn. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/966868/BUDGET_2021_-_web.pdf, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/business-rates-review-update

• Data on number of businesses is sourced from the ‘UK Business Counts – local units by industry and employment size band’ dataset, accessed via nomis https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/

• Nearly 180,000 retail jobs were lost in the UK in 2020, up by almost a quarter on the previous year, according to the Centre for Retail Research (CRR) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55501049